A little back story. I began looking for dive shops back in mid-summer for my son and I to get our OW certs through for his 10th birthday. I ended up going ahead and getting my cert ahead of his at the recommendation of several people which now that I have been through the training and better understand the risk in diving I can say it was absolutely the best way to go about this. I plan to follow up with AOW and Rescue before the end of next summer. At the beginning though I started off speaking with a shop close to our home that was very welcoming and stated that we should do a try scuba class with them first to see if he would like it since he’s young. The way they went about the try scuba session looking back after having been trained was really kind of scary but at the time I had never had a regulator in my mouth so I didn’t know any better. They basically strapped all the gear on us and said “Have fun if you go to the deep end it might hurt your ears so beware of that”. We both had fun and it confirmed that he wanted to continue to pursue diving. So after the try scuba class I wanted to discuss options for us doing the open water class together. They were more adamant though about me signing him up for their youth program but they were being elusive as to what exactly was detailed other than he would get training and then be part of their “youth dive club” that has monthly meetings and activities. After he heard their pitch about all the fun games they’d play every month he was sold so I signed him up. Now, they had told me that his “youth program” cert class would be over the span of two days. They gave him one day of training and then tried to send him home with a dvd and call that the second day of training. I had words with the shop and explained that I was told he would receive two days in the pool for training. Their response was “He doesn’t need a second day in the pool. He basically knows it all”. After some strong words they conceded to give him the training I paid for. The cost of these two days “training” was $250.00 and all it qualified him to do was participate in their club which cost another $260 in dues every six months. (Again at the time I didn’t know any better).
I decided to start looking into other shops for us to cert through as I didn’t feel all warm and cozy about the one we had been going to. I ended up at another shop further away from our home but I immediately felt like I was in the right place. I could tell from my first conversations with them that they we’re very serious about their training programs. They we’re the ones that discouraged me from letting him take the class before I had any training myself. I went ahead and signed up and completed my OW with them last month. I will start working on my AOW and Rescue next spring. My son will start his class room work in December, and his OW check next summer.
The only issue I have with the new shop is the way the treat you if you don’t buy every piece of gear from them. I have been slowly collecting gear for both my son and myself and I discussed my plans for future gear purchases with them. The problem is that they only want to sell me the most expensive gear and get testy when I mention lower cost options. They also don’t seem to be very keen on slowly piecing things together. They try to push for a one time purchase of the whole kit. I’ve explained to them that I’m not in that position financially. This usually ends any help I can get from them. The impression I get from them is “It’s either buy the Lamborghini or shop elsewhere.”
So I feel like I have nowhere to go. I have one shop that seems like they just want to collect my money and then half ass the training. And I have one shop that training wise is wonderful and the people and instructors are great during the class but if I don’t plan to spend more than a $1000.00 at a time they don’t have interest in the business I’m trying to give them. I have since bought some new gear and some used here and there whenever a really good deal has come around but I don’t feel like I have anywhere I can go to get service for it.
I don’t get how places of business can operate this way. If I ran my business like either of these I’d be out of customers real fast.
I decided to start looking into other shops for us to cert through as I didn’t feel all warm and cozy about the one we had been going to. I ended up at another shop further away from our home but I immediately felt like I was in the right place. I could tell from my first conversations with them that they we’re very serious about their training programs. They we’re the ones that discouraged me from letting him take the class before I had any training myself. I went ahead and signed up and completed my OW with them last month. I will start working on my AOW and Rescue next spring. My son will start his class room work in December, and his OW check next summer.
The only issue I have with the new shop is the way the treat you if you don’t buy every piece of gear from them. I have been slowly collecting gear for both my son and myself and I discussed my plans for future gear purchases with them. The problem is that they only want to sell me the most expensive gear and get testy when I mention lower cost options. They also don’t seem to be very keen on slowly piecing things together. They try to push for a one time purchase of the whole kit. I’ve explained to them that I’m not in that position financially. This usually ends any help I can get from them. The impression I get from them is “It’s either buy the Lamborghini or shop elsewhere.”
So I feel like I have nowhere to go. I have one shop that seems like they just want to collect my money and then half ass the training. And I have one shop that training wise is wonderful and the people and instructors are great during the class but if I don’t plan to spend more than a $1000.00 at a time they don’t have interest in the business I’m trying to give them. I have since bought some new gear and some used here and there whenever a really good deal has come around but I don’t feel like I have anywhere I can go to get service for it.
I don’t get how places of business can operate this way. If I ran my business like either of these I’d be out of customers real fast.
